Marketing With Purpose | 41 Orange Blog

Searching for a way to take your B2B online marketing up a notch in efficiency and efficacy? Instead of leaning into cold calls/emails or putting all of your eggs into trade shows or networking, consider leveraging the potential of authentic networking via LinkedIn groups.

Nowhere else on the internet can you find a better-qualified group of prospects to engage for B2B marketing. Previously we wrote about how to get business from LinkedIn in less than 25 minutes per day. Part of that strategy is getting involved in LinkedIn Groups. You can use participation in the right groups to feed the top of your sales funnel with the best possible fuel: those people most likely to engage with your content, appreciate your offerings, and develop into satisfied customers.

Let's dive in! We're going to use real estate as our example industry here, but know that there are groups for virtually any industry or vertical.

Bringing in new customers is the lifeline of any business. In industries such as commercial real estate, construction, financial services or even architecture & design, marketers and salespeople alike have relied on handshakes and cold calls.

But what if there was a better, more effective way to market your business?

Blogging made it's way on the marketing scene in the early 2000s with "brand journalism." Savvy brands utilizing online content to climb in search results, gain new website traffic and connect with customers on a brand new level.

Today, however, blogging has become an effective long-term marketing strategy that allows companies to bring in new customers with a more passive sales approach. The results of blogging over time typically result in more leads, contributing to sustainable and ongoing growth.

"Inbound marketing with HubSpot generally produces 2x the amount of leads within the first 6-months."

What is Inbound Marketing?

Good question. Inbound marketing is simply the term we give for the method of bringing the right people to your website and get their contact information for a potential sale.

Inbound marketing utilizes tactics like blogging, social media and search engine optimization to attract the right people to your website. For instance, if you're reading this right now, you're more than like the right person for us at 41 Orange because we work with marketers who want to increase leads or salespeople who need more prospects.

Then we entice web visitors with valuable offer, bringing them to a form where we can capture their information, like this:

Next, when you have that person's information (and permissionto email them) you can continue to send them relevant and helpful content (such as blog articles) to them to grow the relationship. Eventually, you'll trigger a need in that lead and they may reach out to learn more about your services -- then you work your magic and close a sale!

Blogging is where it all begins.

A business-to-business company in any industry can take advantage of blogging for business to increase B2B sales. Here are a couple tips for how to get started:

All the cool kids are using Instagram, but if you are a B2B marketer, you might think that you don't need to be up on this popular social media app. This would be a mistake.

Instagram allows you to share photos and 15-second videos with your followers. It is a great way to promote visual content about your brand with the world.

When you think about it, marketing to businesses is really directed at the people who work at those businesses. These people are looking to solve problems, fulfill needs and meet challenges. Instagram is just another way for you to showcase how your products and services can help.

Best of all, since Instagram is used for social sharing and B2C marketing, your posts will reach your followers when they are not in work mode. This allows you to present a more fun and playful side to your brand. By making a more personal connection with your followers, you can cultivate long-term business relationships and alliances -- and perhaps even attract new leads.

You’ve perfected the top of your funnel, cultivating several well-designed points of entry. Visitors are pouring in to your website, drawn by top notch content and savvy SEO, and once they arrive they’re taking action. You have more leads than you know what to do with as guests sign up for newsletters and submit contact forms.

There's a pretty good chance that one of the main goals of your inbound marketing campaign is to improve your B2B lead generation. There are numerous strategies out there that can be extremely effective at generating leads if implemented into your overall marketing strategy correctly. However, the first step of creating an effective lead generation marketing program is understanding how to effectively reach your audience. This is accomplished through the creation of a buyer persona.